Bill Marquardt was sentenced to death by the State of Florida for a double murder. According to court documents Bill Marquardt would force his way into a home and murder Margarita Ruiz, 72, and her daughter Esperanza Wells, 42. Bill Marquardt would get away with the murders until DNA tied him to the double homicide. Bill Marquardt was previously acquitted of the murder of his own mother. Bill Marquardt was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Bill Marquardt 2021 Information
| DC Number: | U44139 |
|---|---|
| Name: | MARQUARDT, BILL P |
| Race: | WHITE |
| Sex: | MALE |
| Birth Date: | 12/17/1975 |
| Initial Receipt Date: | 03/15/2012 |
| Current Facility: | UNION C.I. |
| Current Custody: | MAXIMUM |
| Current Release Date: | DEATH SENTENCE |
Bill Marquardt More News
o matter what argument Bill P. Marquardt made, the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday rejected it. The former Chippewa Falls man failed to have the court overturn his murder convictions of two Florida women.
The result is that Marquardt, 39, remains on Florida’s death row for the 2000 murders of Margarita Ruiz, 72, and her daughter Esperanza Wells, 42. He will likely remain on death row for many years to come.
The Supreme Court’s 54-page ruling says in part:
“Although the record contains no evidence with respect to motive, the record reflects that DNA from Marquardt was found inside the victims’ house, mixed with the victims’ blood. Additionally, the victims’ blood was found on clothes, shoes, and a knife seized from Marquardt upon his arrest in Wisconsin, as well as in Marquardt’s car.
“Further, the gun that killed the victims was found in Marquardt’s cabin. Finally, the evidence suggested that Marquardt, who lived in Wisconsin at the time of the murders, was in Florida on the date the victims were killed.
“Accordingly, we conclude that the record provides sufficient evidence from which a rational trier of fact could convict Marquardt of the first-degree murder of Ruiz and Wells, as well as burglary of a dwelling with a firearm. We therefore affirm his convictions.”
Marquardt was acquitted of the March 2000 murder of his mother, Mary Jane Marquardt, in the town of Eagle Point.
An affidavit for a warrant at the time said: “Investigator (Dick Price) further reports that in examining the body of Mary J. Marquardt and the scene where she was found, it appeared as though among the wounds incurred by her was a knife wound.”
Marquardt was originally found not competent to stand trial for his mother’s murder.
He was then charged in Eau Claire County with armed burglary and cruelty to animals and ultimately convicted in that case, but found not guilty by reason of mental disease in the Eau Claire County case and committed for 60 years.
After his 2006 acquittal by a Polk County jury of the murder of his mother, Marquardt was linked to the Florida case by a drop of blood on a knife that contained DNA from two people not connected with the Chippewa County case. Then-Chippewa County District Attorney Jon Theisen researched the deaths of Ruiz and Wells on the Internet, and notified Florida authorities of a possible connection.
Theisen is now a judge in Eau Claire County.
{span}The average stay on death row in Florida is nearly 13 years, according to that state’s Department of Corrections. Marquardt was convicted in October 2011 and sentenced in February 2012.